The Power of Oneself. Charles Fillmore

being thought formations, carry out, in their turn, the word that has been spoken into them. Talking about nervousness and weakness will produce corresponding conditions in the body; on the other hand, sending forth the word of strength and affirming poise will bring about the desired strength and poise. Your talking about a weak stomach will make your stomach weak. Your talking about your bad liver will fix that idea in your liver. The usual conversation among people creates ill health instead of good health, because of wrong words. If the words speak of disease as a reality, disintegrating forces are set in action, and these, in the end, shatter the strongest organism, if not counteracted by constructive forces.

      9. As an example of the vibratory power of the spoken word, a vocalist can shatter a wineglass by concentrating upon it certain tones. Every time we speak we cause the atoms of the body to tremble and change their places. Not only do we cause the atoms of our own body to change their position, but we raise or lower the rate of vibration and otherwise affect the bodies of others with whom we come in contact. By telling the little child that he looks sick and tired, the mother produces these conditions in the child's mind and body. If the mother addresses words of health, life, and strength to the child, these will set his bodily functions into activity and they will express the harmony of the dominant thought.

      10. Thus every word brings forth after its kind. The "seed" is the creative idea inherent in the word, the nature that it inherits from its parent source--God. The enthusiast in floral culture, who hovers over and talks in loving tones to his flowers, always has success with them, while his neighbor, who is cold and indifferent, fails. The mental emanation and the creative word are the forces that stimulate the receptive intelligence of nature, and although the enthusiast may know nothing of the law of mind, he is using it in its most effective mode, the creative word. In like manner the spiritual healer mentally and audibly speaks to the same all-pervading receptacle, and it responds by building up wasted tissues and weakened functions.

      11. Mind is everywhere and its avenues of expression, like the ether waves of radio, run in every direction. The wonderful discovery that messages can be sent around the earth without wires should forever silence those who have been incredulous when thought transference through a like ether is claimed. But there is a means by which ideas may be transmitted even more rapidly than by mental vibrations, and that is unity with supreme Mind. This Mind exists as the absolute, the unlimited. In its consciousness there is no apartness, no separation, and whoever puts himself into its consciousness can accomplish things instantly.

      12. When the centurion said to Jesus, "Only say the word, and my servant shall be healed," the Master said that He had not found so great faith in all Israel, and His healing word was: "As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee." We must have a certain amount of faith in the substance of the invisible and in its ability to do our will. When Peter recognized in Jesus that inner principle called Christ, the Son of God, the response was: "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." The Father must have been present to Peter as He was to Jesus, and the "heaven" in which Jesus said that the Father was must also have been there. The fact is, Being is always present. Mortal ignorance and lack of faith prevent our realization of this truth. The more we believe in the wisdom, power, substance, love, and life of the one Mind, the greater is its activity in us and our affairs. Not only should we have faith in the All-Presence, but we should also develop our understanding to the end that we may know why the All-Presence manifests through us. Physical science is today in advance of religion in its recognition of a universal life substance and intelligence. Religion is looking for this mighty Creator away off in some distant heaven, right in the face of the distinct teaching of Jesus that God is Spirit and that His kingdom is within man.

      13. But physical science falls short in that it fails to recognize the unity between omnipresent Intelligence and the knowing principle in man. Science is seeking to know intellectually, or from the plane of forms and shapes, that which is of the mind. Physical science has recognized the presence of the creative forces, but it does not know the power that moves them. Divine metaphysics has discovered the moving power to be the thought and word of man, and is proving the truth of this principle through results in a multitude of directions.

      14. The spoken word carries vibrations through the universal ether, and also moves the intelligence inherent in every form, animate or inanimate. It has been discovered that even rocks and all minerals have life. This is proof of the omnipresence of the one animating substance. Man, being the highest emanation of Divine Mind, has great directive power and is really co-operator with God in forming the universe. We should be speaking words of truth to everything, not only to mankind but to the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. The fine discernment of the poet reveals that "the very stones cry out" where a tragedy has occurred. The all-penetrating ether receives our thoughts and words, like the wax cylinder of the phonograph, only a thousand times more accurately; it preserves them and echoes them back to us in continuous vibrations. There are no secrets and no concealments. Jesus said that what you think and speak in the inner chamber is proclaimed from the housetops, and now we know why this is true. The very walls of your room, aye, even the substance of the atmosphere in that room, are proclaiming over and over the words that you have spoken there, whether you are present or not. For example, a woman rented a room in a certain city. Several nights in succession, just as she fell asleep, she heard a man talking incoherently about the grain market. This continued for some time, and she mentioned it to the landlady who informed her that the room had been last occupied by a dealer on the board of trade.

      15. The power of the word is given man to use. The better he understands the character of God and his own relation to humanity, the more unselfishly will he exercise this power. Some are using it in selfish ways, but this should not deter others who have a better understanding of the law from using it in righteous ways. "If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name," is a promise that none should ignore. If we need things and if they are necessary to our happiness, it is not sacrilegious to set into action this higher law in attaining them.

      16. The curses of the witch and the blessings of the priest have always been believed in by so-called ignorant and credulous people. In the light of modern revelation, the charge of ignorance should be shifted to the unbelieving. The word of one in authority carries weight and produces far-reaching effects. The fiat of the physician that a certain disease must result disastrously to the patient will, when believed, counteract all the healing forces of nature. A pin scratch has resulted in blood poison, because there was no proper denial that such a result might follow.

      17. Man has the power to deny and dissolve all disintegrating, discordant, and disease-forming words. Knowledge of this fact is the greatest discovery of all ages. No other revelation from God to man is to be compared with it. You can make yourself a new creature, and you can build the world about you to your highest ideals. Do not fear, but speak to the law supreme the desires of your heart. If your word is selfish, that which will come to you through its use will be unsatisfactory, but you will profit by the experience and thus learn to speak words of righteousness only. But it is your duty as expresser of the divine law to speak forth the Logos, the very Word of God, and cause the Garden of Eden, the everywhere-present Mind-Substance, to manifest for you and in you in its innate perfection.

      The Power Of Words

       (To be used in connection with Lesson Six)

      1. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."

      2. "The tongue of the wise is health."

      3. "He that guardeth his mouth keepeth his life."

      4. "Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles."

      5. "A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul."

      6. "Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? There is more hope of a fool than of him."

      7. "Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones."

      8. "The lips of the wise shall preserve them."

      9. "Put away from thee a wayward mouth, and perverse